Twenty-nine years ago, in fall of 1989, NBC aired a TV movie
that was so impactful that people who saw it then still remark on
the effect it had on them. It was Tracey Thurman’s story,
called “A Cry for Help, starring Nancy McKeon as Tracey and Dale
Midkiff as Buck.

In December of 1990, Tracey Thurman came to Washington DC to
testify before a Senate Hearing. Then-Senator Joe Biden of
Delaware invited her to testify as Congress considered a Violence
Against Women Act (VAWA) to address widespread intimate partner
violence and a lack of resources for victims.

Police were annoyed in the 1980s because they felt like they
were being asked to be social workers. It took legislators to
change the law enforcement practices (and hopefully, attitudes)
with laws designed to require arrests for those accused of domestic
violence.